Albayrak, a humanist Muslim theologian, has written a remarkable book. In A Contemporary Turkish Prison Diary, he reviews the prison experiences chronicled by the Kurdish religious leader Said Nursi (1877-1960), imprisoned by both Russian and Turkish authorities, and the characters in the fiction of Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1908-2008), imprisoned by Stalin. Albayrak then juxtaposes these with his own twenty-two months incarceration in a Turkish prison. The book’s central concern deals with the endurance of suffering and humiliation, leading to inner peace and spiritual growth.
Albayrak matriculated through the İmam-Hatip religious schools, earned a doctorate in theology at Leeds University, served on the faculty of the Australian Catholic University, and then returned to Türkiye. After what Albayrak calls the “staged” coup d’état of July 15, 2016 and the deaths of more than 200 people, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blamed Fethullah Gülen and members of his Hizmet Islamic movement as a way to advance his authoritarian rule. Labeling Hizmet a terrorist organization (dubbed FETÖ), he imprisoned many of the country’s brightest and did all he could to destroy Gülen’s global network of over 800 Hizmet schools in nearly 150 countries.
This crackdown led to Albayrak finding himself among an extraordinary mix of cellmates drawn from the country’s police officers, judges, writers, and others. He reports that their inner lives blossomed—just as with Nursi and Solzhenitsyn—leading to a comradeship among prisoners, who bonded in prayer, singing, and close communion. Despite mistreatment, suffering, and humiliation, what persisted was a heightening of a sense of spirituality.
Albayrak’s brilliant essay has special value for those readers who face autocrats attempting to take over a democratic state.
Tom Gage
Professor Emeritus of English
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
